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The Luna performance from June at McCarren Park is perhaps my favorite show of this entire year. The recording has been on constant rotation on my playlist. That special night was Luna’s first show in NYC in ten years and it occurred on Britta Phillips’ birthday. As it happens, this show last month in the British Northlands city Leeds took place on Dean Wareham’s birthday. After the previous night in London (recording coming soon), the band settled into the more intimate venue in front of an engaged crowd, with a show that started out strong and quite literally never let up. There are many highlights and we are streaming two of them, including the second call for an encore that led to an excellent version of “Tiger Lily”. There is an outstanding first person account of this show (and other dates on the UK tour) at the excellent fan site A Head Full of Wishes (here).

Luna will of course be back in town in NYC next month. The band plays two shows at Bowery Ballroom (October 7 and 8) and Music Hall of Williamsburg on October 9. Those shows are currently sold out, but the nights will all be Events so its suggested that our local readers get tickets by hook or crook.

Kubacheck recorded this show with his trusty MBHO cards from a very advantageous position in this small-ish club and the sound quality is outstanding. Enjoy!

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It shouldn’t be so long between my Mekons concerts. I’ve seen the band five times over 22 years, generally with 6 or 7 years between shows. The last time was a crazy crowded show at Mercury Lounge in 2009, and before that it was 2007 at Gramercy Theatre, 2000 at Bowery, and 1992 at the Marquee. It isn’t like the band doesn’t deliver — each of these shows were lengthy and highly entertaining trips through the band’s entire catalog. Indeed, Mekons shows are legendary for their remarkable ability to keep the audience engaged through not only the musical performances but the hilarious banter. So much so that the Mekons now have a feature film documentary about them called “Revenge of the Mekons“. The success of the film has translated to increased exposure for the band and the result has been a “sold-out” tour that reached the Bowery Ballroom last week. Bowery was indeed packed with a very boisterous and committed crowd who not only interacted with the band but also indulged some of the unpredictable events possible at any Mekons show. Tonight it was Rico Bell’s unfortunate misplaced high kick during “Heaven and Back” that resulted in him completely wiping out Jon Langford’s amp and other assorted pieces of equipment. For any other band, this kind of clusterfuck would be a disaster, for the Mekons it was a slight blip in the show that ended up being fertile ground for even more hilarious banter. But lest our readers believe this show was messy, this was the tightest and most meticulously performed Mekons show I’ve seen. Indeed, NYCTaper uber contributor and huge Mekons fan neild, who has likely seen the band a few dozen times remarked to me after the concert that this was the best Mekons show he’d ever seen. I had little cause to disagree. The band played everything from 70’s era single “Where Were You?” to tracks from the latest album (2011’s Ancient and Modern) and virtually everything in between. I’ve always loved the 2000 album Journey to the End of the Night (saw the tour) and we’re streaming an incendiary version of “Tina” below. The band’s 80s catalog was also well represented and we’re also streaming an excellent version of Sally Timms’ coined 1988 single “Ghosts of American Astronauts”.

I recorded this set in our usual manner at the Bowery — Schoeps cards in the balcony and mixed with an excellent board feed. Bowery legend Kenny really nailed the mix on this night and the result is one of the best Bowery recordings we’ve ever produced. Enjoy!

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